


Do It Again

by ShyVioletCat



Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: F/M, spoiler: its a dream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23730568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyVioletCat/pseuds/ShyVioletCat
Summary: Tumblr Prompt: “I like you begging. Do it again.”
Relationships: Aelin Ashryver Galathynius | Celaena Sardothien/Rowan Whitethorn, Rowaelin - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	Do It Again

The sense that the world was not right woke Aelin from her sleep. It was Iike a ripple in the fabric of what held their world together, a shift that Aelin had felt before.

Aelin’s immediate reaction was to reach for Rowan, but he was not there. She bolted upright, desperately searching for her mate.

“Hello, Fire-bringer,” a cold, hard voice said.

Aelin head whirled to the window where silver moonlight illuminated Rowan kneeling in front of a female figure. Even though she held Rowan in place she seemed to be made of the moonlight, a pillar of silver and white. It was not only the female that had Aelin summoning her fire to her fingertips. It was the obsidian blade, as dark as the shadows of the moon, that she held to Rowan’s throat. Aelin knew who had come for them. It was Deanna, Goddess of the Moon and the Hunt.

“What is it that you want?” Aelin said, not bothering with polite words.

“What is it that I want?” Deanna laughed and her corporal form solidified a little more. There were scars all over her body, her face. One eye was damaged by three claw marks that started from her forehead and ran to her cheek. “I want what was promised to me.”

Rowan’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. That knife coming so close to cutting skin.

“You got what you deserved,” Aelin said, rallying herself for a fight.

Deanna hissed. “Those demons killed many of us before we killed them. Much of our beautiful world they destroyed. But you made a mistake, we learnt the secrets of the gates. That is how I have come to you. To seek my revenge.”

“Aelin,” Rowan breathed but Deanna pushed the knife against his throat. The smell of his blood filled the room as Aelin saw it trickle down his neck.

“It was you I came for, Fire-bringer. But I am not a monster, I am not going to kill and expectant mother. Protector of the Young is what the people of this miserable world called me.”

Aelin’s body went cold and Deanna’s words hit. Mother…

Her eyes met Rowan’s. _Did you know?_

 _I knew. I knew, Fireheart._ A single tear rolled down his cheek.

Deanna’s smile turned malicious and Aelin was overcome with desperation and she stepped onto the floor. “Please, Deanna. Do not harm my mate. Please.”

“I like you begging. Do it again,” Deanna said as her eyes pointedly looked at the floor and back up, a self assured arrogance emanating from the Goddess.

Aelin read her meaning, what she wanted her to do. Aelin would bow for no one. But she would for those she loved and protected, she would do it for her mate and… and the father of her child. The cold of the floor cut into her knees, but she was sweating, her whole body was damp as the panic set in.

“Please spare him, Deanna. I will give you anything. Please do not take Rowan from me.” Aelin held her hands out in supplication, her voice shaking. She could not lose him, she would give Deanna anything she asked for.

A small, vicious smile appeared on Deanna’s lips. “You have nothing that I want.”

Aelin didn’t have time to scream as Deanna slashed the obsidian knife across Rowan’s throat, his blood spraying. Aelin stumbled over to him, not seeing Deanna fade into moonlight.

“No. No, no, no,” Aelin said over and over pulling Rowan into her lap. His life blood seeped from the savage cut on his neck. “Rowan,” Aelin sobbed. “Rowan.”

Her hand hovered his would as she called on her healing but it wouldn’t go near it, like it was repulsed but it. The blade, it was poisoned. Aelin couldn’t fight it, whatever it was it was beyond her power to heal.

“Help! Help!” Aelin screamed. “Hold on Rowan. Someone will come. You just need to hold on.”

Tears were falling from Aelin’s eyes, his blood was flowing too fast. He needed someone now. Aelin looked into those pine green eyes that she loved and she saw tears in them. Rowan tried to speak but only blood spluttered from his lips.

“Don’t you dare leave me, Buzzard. Don’t leave me.” Then Aelin remembered Deanna’s words. “Don’t leave us.”

Rowan’s hand was shaking as he raised it and laid in on her stomach, red staining the fabric of her nightgown.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Aelin sobbed.

_I’m sorry, Aelin. I’m so sorry…_

Rowan closed his eyes, his body going heavy. Aelin felt the mating bond start to fray, it was fading into nothing. She scrambled to catch hold of it, hold on it. Hold on to him.

“Rowan, no. You can’t,” Aelin begged him.

Her begging once again came to nothing as Rowan took one last shuddering breath, blood leaking from mouth and nose. His body went still and Aelin’s world went silent as that precious weight in her chest was nothing but an empty void. Rowan was gone. The gods had exacted their final revenge…

A gasping breath brought Aelin to consciousness, tangled in the sheets of her bed. There was an ache in her chest and her cheeks were wet with tears. Rowan wasn’t here, the bed was empty except for her. She couldn’t breathe, her fingers clawing at her chest where she could feel the lingering phantom tug of the mating bond. Because he was gone, Rowan was gone and she was alone.

Aelin couldn’t stop the sobs that wracked her body. They hurt, the way they tore from her throat, pushed her lung to the point where they felt as though they may burst. Rowan was gone. He had been taken from her, just as all good things had been. It was what she deserved after all she had done. Saving her kingdom would never be enough to atone for what her past held.

A wind blew in through the open door that led to her private garden, it carried the scent of pine and snow, just to mock her in her pain.

“Aelin?”

No, that wasn’t Rowan’s voice that she heard. It was her mind recalling the sounds of his voice, because Rowan couldn’t speak with his throat cut. The sound of blood was all that came from his mouth. Aelin closed her eyes to pain, it was too much, it was taking everything in her not to set the room on fire.

Cool, large hands rested on her wet cheeks. No, this wasn’t real. Why was her mind torturing her like this?

“Fireheart, open your eyes. Look at me.” Rowan’s voice held a command that she could not refuse and she opened her eyes, blinking against the tears that kept falling.

Rowan’s face hovered above her, his face concerned and slightly terrified. Aelin reached up running her fingers across his neck where Deanna had let life blood flow from his body. There was no cut, not even a scar, this wasn’t real. This was not real…

“Breathe for me Aelin, I need you to breathe,” Rowan said, his hands still on her face. She tried, but there was only fire.

An icy, gentle wind caressed her body, coaxing her to cool that burning fire in her veins. She let it deep into her body, into her lungs, let the essence of Rowan calm her racing heart. Aelin took one breath, and another, then another. The burning dissipated, that icy wind played against her skin.

“Rowan?” She said at last.

“I’m here, Aelin,” he said gently, easing her up to sit then pulled her into his lap.

Aelin fisted his shirt in her hand breathing in his scent, letting it ground her.

“This is real, you are awake and I am here,” Rowan murmured in her ear, answering the question she could not voice. “I am here, Aelin. It was just a dream.”

Rowan just held her, waited for her to decide whether or not to tell him what had happened.

“Deanna, she found us,” Aelin said, her voice hoarse and broken. Her fingers brushed at his neck again. “She cut your throat and you died in my arms.”

“She is gone, Fireheart. You banished her and the others to a place worlds away then unleashed hell on them. They will not find you again,” Rowan promised.

Aelin let his words settle on her soul. Rowan was right, the Gods were gone, she had sealed them far away from their world and the people she loved. She was safe, Rowan was safe. Aelin let Rowan hold her until any thoughts that suggested otherwise were burned away with the morning sun.

Rowan lifted her chin with her fingers and kissed her. “Nothing and no one will take me from you Aelin.”

“From us,” Aelin said, not thinking before the words were out of her mouth. It seemed the dream still held her by its claws.

“What?” Rowan said as his brow furrowed in confusion.

Aelin’s fingers traced the lines of the tattoo of Rowan’s face. “Nothing. In my dream Deanna told me I was pregnant. You already knew, but you hadn’t told me.”

Rowan stilled her hand with his, his body taking on the preternatural stillness as his nostrils flared.

“Rowan what is it?” Aelin asked.

Rowan swallowed, then said quietly, “You are.”

“I’m what?” Aelin said. She knew what he was talking about, but she wanted to hear him say it.

“Fireheart, you’re pregnant,” Rowan said, a gentle smile on his lips.

Aelin let out a shuddering breath. “This isn’t really how I wanted to find out. Deanna telling me from beyond the grave.”

Rowan let go of her hand and cupped her cheek, wiping away the tear that fell with his thumb. “Growing up as one of the eldest cousins I heard things from my aunts. Some of them had strange dreams just before they found out they were pregnant. Maybe this is our child’s way of making a dramatic entrance.”

Aelin laughed, the sound a bit broken through her joyful tears. “I don’t think I would expect anything less given your penchant for dramatics.”

Now Rowan laughed, a deep sound from his chest as a wide grin spread over his face. Aelin expected a contradiction, for Rowan to call her out on her own love for dramatics but he didn’t. He instead eased her down onto the bed, one hand sliding down her body to rest on her stomach and kissed her.


End file.
